badblackcat

The more I watched Chris Covington, the more I like him. I didn't know who he was; I didn't realize I was watching him when I watched Tegray Scales, who I thought would be a good choice late. The reason Scales gets to haul around making great plays unblocked is because Covington is right there in the middle, taking on the blocks and doing all the dirty work.

Sigh. I loved that guy.

I was going to rail about how much I didn't really like Mike White, and then realized I didn't watch Mike White, I watched Riley Ferguson. I like Mike White more than I like Riley Ferguson. He comes from an RPO offense and that's what Dallas wants to run.

Dallas is going to use him as a NE-esque matchup player. RB/WR hybrid that makes base defense matchups possible. 1 year deal, only going to be about 3 million. The same role Dallas would have filled with Hines, or Dunbar.

Schultz is OK. He does alot of the dirty work Dallas likes from their tight ends. He's alot like Swaim. He has an issue where he falls off alot of blocks. Probably a technique thing.

Arrrgh no Armani Watts is gone.

For some reason I thought Armstrong got drafted in the 3rd. Good pick.

Hines is gone. Looks like Ito Smith is gonna be the backup running back.

Yeah, could be. Seems a waste to use a draft pick on him, I assume they'll take him as a UDFA.

Those are just the guys I remember having official visits. Jewell got interviewed at Combine.

Right now I think the targets are: Hines Elliott Kiser Smythe Flowers Watts Jewell Ito Smith With quarterbacks I don't know. I haven't looked at many of them, and I didn't see one that would fit the skill profile of, say, Cooper Rush. It's possible they are more inclined to look for a guy that matches Dak's skillset now. Logan Woodside was really the only guy I was interested in.

I assume they'll grab guys who've had official visits, and that's what they've done so far. No trades, just going by their board. Just off the top of my head I would say their main targets are Deshon Elliott, Nyheim Hines, and Micah Kiser. I can't remember if they brought in a tight end - maybe one. If they wish to go all in on the Rico Gathers/ Blake Jarwin combo, then they need a sound blocking tight end late. Ozawale can also play the F tight end, so they maybe grab another FB instead, like Flowers. I think the tight end they brought in was Durham Smythe, so that may be the only tight end we see them drafting. I was high on Ragnow in the 2nd, and they still need a backup center to replace Joe Looney, who didn't play well last season. They may have looked at a guy like Quissenberry.

Basically you're 3 for 3 considering you got the guard position right on the 2nd round. I guess we can expect to have Ito Smith and Deshon Elliott on the team soon.

I think Taven Bryan is better. Better use of hands, better first step, gets off blocks, better motor. I'd honestly have Taven Bryan as the first round pick, especially if there's a trade down, if I thought Marinelli could convince the room.

I don't have Austin Corbett in my top 100 - have you seen him going in the 2nd somewhere? If Dallas were taking a guard in the 2nd, I would pray to the heavens for it to be Frank Ragnow. All in all this wouldn't be a bad draft. I'm not sure any of these lower rated quarterbacks are worth drafting - all of them are Air Raid quarterbacks that don't offer much in improvement. If I were force to take one, I'd take Logan Woodside.

I don't even recall what his injury was. I only concern myself with serious leg injuries - Lis Franc, achilles tears, Jaylon Smith's knee. Everything else is usually just noise or misinformation. Supposedly TJ Watts was getting dropped last year because he's had ACL tears, which are fairly common now and easy to fix. I wouldn't worry about it. Even if it were true, there are still teams that would draft him regardless, so it probably wouldn't effect draft stock. We already know Dallas would take a chance on an injured linebacker that has 1st round talent in the 2nd, so it would probably be a win-win.

Not a bad pick if we're talking 2nd or 3rd round. It's going to take awhile for him to learn Dallas' route tree - he did simple routes almost solely from the right side. Dallas already has a faster guy in Deonte Thompson.

DJ Moore is a bit of a mystery. I can't be sure if the screen-heavy gimmick offense he was in was solely because the quarterbacks were awful. So he's a great runner after the catch, but he struggles making contested catches or running a variety of routes. All of that could just be the quarterbacks are awful, but he looks like a guy that's going to need to learn wide receiver. He's your Lucky Whitehead/jet sweep guy until then; maybe even use him the way Packers use Montegomery. 1st round is a bit overkill for that role. Kirk is kinda the same - he's a guy that will have to learn WR, but he might make a good RB/WR hybrid. Miller is much of the same - simple routes, small frame and arm length he is going to have to learn to get off jams of long corners. It might take awhile before any of these guys gets snaps on the field.

I believe Linehan is a Mike Martz disciple. So there's two ways to think about this. Linehan has an offense, fundamentally, that turned Michael Irvin into a beast. But, that was the Ernie Zampese version of the offense. Martz flipped things around, going with guys like Torry Holt, trying to get more speed. Linehan has shown bits of both in his past coaching with the Lions. He had Calvin Johnson, but he also tried to use speed guys where he could. Now what might throw all of this out the window if Linehan is determined to continue with spearheading the RPO-led offensive scheme that worked so well in 2016 - schemes that are now being adopted strongly by the Packers and Eagles. In that offense, Dez probably isn't too desirable. It is an offense that ideally uses alot of deception, and faster, deep-threat wideouts fit better.

I've looked. The wide receivers in this draft just don't look like first rounders to me. Most of them can't get separation at all, and always have to make their catches in traffic. I assume there will be a few that get overdrafted on physical traits - guys like Sutton and St. Brown. I've only seen a few that look like good route runners, and I haven't seen those guys on Dallas' radar.

The Cowboys expanded list of visits and workouts: WR - Ridley, DJ Moore, Christian Kirk, Daurice Fountain, James Washington, Antonio Callaway RB - Nyheim Hines OL - Kolton Miller, Mike McGlinchey, James Daniels, Desmond Harrison, Cole Madison, Will Hernandez DL - Da'Ron Payne, Vita Vea, Taven Bryan, Arden Key, Breeland Speaks, Harold Landry LB - LVE, Rashaan Evans, Darius Leonard Sec. - Terrell Edmunds, Tarvarius Moore Dallas Day - OT Connor Williams, S Deshon Elliott, WR Trey Quinn, RB Chris Warren III, S Jason Hall Private Workout - WR Courtland Sutton, OL Will Hernandez, DT Nathan Shepard, LB Malik Jefferson, OG Austin Corbett, TE David Wells, LB Fred Warner

linebacker has quite a few interesting choices. One of the guys I really like is Mathew Thomas, but I haven't seen Dallas show interest. Darius Leonard didn't play great competition but he probably doesn't get enough credit for being technique-sound and he will take on blocks really well; better than Hitchens or Damien Wilson in their rookie years. LVE dropping to the 2nd may depend on a run of receivers or OL, or maybe secondary. I've seen Crichy dropping down to 6th round lately; everybody is starting to forget about him. I've seen some Dallas writers really high on Warner but I don't know if Dallas is. I would really like to get Deshon Elliott since Derwin James appears to be out of reach, but Jesse Bates is another consideration.

I'm of the mind they could leverage a falling quarterback to move back in the 1st regardless of the target. The DL available this early aren't especially productive. The wide receivers are iffy to me. There's a few good OLinemen. With offball linebackers, I'd rather just get two than draft one at 19, unless Edmunds falls somehow.

Probably because they switched places in a year, they changed their offense to mirror ours, and nobody has managed to run away with the NFC East year after year.

I like LVE - I don't think Dallas likes to target 1st round, offball linebackers. They grab fallers in the 2nd, as you all know. I like Kirk as a hybrid player - you wouldn't have to change anything with receivers if you add him. Really like Elliott. Really leaning toward Bryan right now. Hines would be wonderful later on.